


from your lips a precipice

by jinxfabray



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, YES more fluff without plot, and being gross, its literally them getting together, sue me, uh sort of uni au, whatcha gonna do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 04:12:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10733874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinxfabray/pseuds/jinxfabray
Summary: in which jongdae gets up at four in the morning to bake muffins.





	from your lips a precipice

**Author's Note:**

> UH SO THIS IS HAPPENING AGAIN this is unbeta'd bc sara wanted to go to sleep or something but i did my best to go over it  
> anyway this is set in the universe of my other xiuchen where they adopt a cat so it's like a prequel where they're grossly in love but don't know it yet until they do
> 
> title from new heights by a fine frenzy

the truth is, jongdae should be sleeping. it’s quarter to five in the morning, and there is absolutely no logical reason for him to be at work baking muffins when he has a class at eight am. he could blame it on being stressed out, but it’s not finals’ season and he’s not super behind with his readings. he didn’t wake up in the middle of the night desperate to blow off some steam, in fact he set the alarm at exactly four am to be here in time to get a whole two batches done before the coffee shop opens its doors to the public.

jongdae’s worked at this coffee shop for eight months now, and it’s been a glorious eight months. it’s his second time working at a coffee shop, but here he’s in charge of baking which is everything he ever wanted, and he’s proven himself worthy of such responsibilities by having his famous muffins sell out before closing time every single day so far. it came to him over his free weekend though, that this means if he makes more muffins, they can probably /sell/ more muffins, and that would be good for the business, right? and what’s good the business is good for the owners, and jongdae has a very special interest in the owners of this tiny shop. kim joonmyun is a good guy, one of the best he’s ever met, and jongdae really wants him to do well in life. kim minseok -- well, he’s been jongdae’s best friend since they were seventeen, and jongdae would jump in front of a bus to guarantee minseok’s happiness. luckily, so far he hasn’t needed jongdae to do anything so drastic. in fact, minseok never seems to need anything from him, but that’s never stopped jongdae from trying to go above and beyond for whatever he thinks might help minseok.

the clock on the wall strikes five, and jongdae figures he should wait until his last batch cools off and then go home for a little while. if he makes himself a nice cup of coffee and he resists the temptation of getting back in bed, he might even get ahead on his readings and everything.

he gets out of the kitchen, heading towards the one coffee machine he knows how to operate, and nearly bumps into minseok.

“ah, good morning,” minseok says, taking a step back and sleepily rubbing at his eyes.

(jongdae knows exactly what happiness is -- it’s that warm feeling he gets inside when minseok smiles at him.)

“morning, hyung,” jongdae grins at him. he knows he’s in no position to think of minseok as small, but when he’s dressed in this oversized hoodie that almost reaches his knees he looks positively tiny and the warm feeling in jongdae’s chest grows bigger until it tingles his fingertips.

“i didn’t expect to find anyone here this early,” minseok says, covering his mouth as he yawns. “is that -- i smell muffins, yeah?” he asks, and the smile he’d been giving jongdae grows into a full grin because nothing makes him happier than jongdae’s baking.

“ah yes, i thought it’d be good if i left an extra batch to try and see if we can sell some more than usual?” jongdae offers, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly because it kind of feels like he’s overconfident in his own baking that he thinks they can sell more.

“oh, they’ll definitely sell if we have them,” minseok nods, turning to the coffee machine -- the difficult one, not the one jongdae knows how to operate. he’s on autopilot, jongdae can tell because he’s not even looking at what he’s doing, and it makes him worry a little because minseok has no reason to be up at this hour, and especially not awake and /here/. “double shot of espresso?”

“you know how i take my coffee better than i do,” jongdae rolls his eyes as he hops onto a stool at the bar, watching minseok go through the motions of making both their cups of coffee. it is such a familiar sight -- minseok’s been making him coffee since they were in high school, staying up all night to watch lame movies, and then all the way through jongdae’s college life, every time he’s had to stay up for a final, he’s always had minseok by his side with the best coffee. 

“yeah, i do,” minseok says and it’s so soft, jongdae would have looked up at him if he wasn’t already staring at his back. he’s sleepy, jongdae guesses, and minseok is always extra soft when he’s tired.

“so hyung,” jongdae says once minseok is leaning on the bar across from him, stirring his cappuccino. “you’re up early.”

“couldn’t sleep,” minseok shrugs his shoulders, eyes on his coffee. “i’ve been having some trouble with that.”

jongdae brings his coffee to his lips, taking a tiny sip because it’s always hotter than he expects it to be and burning his tongue isn’t a habit he wants to pick up anytime soon. there’s a long pause in their conversation, partly because it’s five in the morning and not even on his best days does jongdae feel chatty at this time of the day, but mostly because it’s them, and they don’t need to talk. jongdae knows he can be loud sometimes (a lot of the time) but he’s never loud with minseok because he never needs to be. minseok always listens when he has something to say, even when he doesn’t have the words to voice it out loud. it’s comfortable between them, it’s always been, and it’s what jongdae loves the most about this friendship. he could do this forever, just sit here watching minseok drink his cappuccino, and he’d feel accomplished.

“but the business is going well, isn’t it?” he asks eventually breaking the silence. 

minseok isn’t even startled by the sudden noise though jongdae has no idea how long they spent just now sitting there enjoying the quiet.

“yeah, the business is thriving,” he nods, giving him a small smile. “especially because we have such hard working employees.”

“ah, please,” jongdae swats at his shoulder half-heartedly, pretending like he’s not blushing a little because there’s nothing that gets to him as much as minseok complimenting him. “i’m only doing this for the free coffee.”

“who said it was free,” minseok asks frowning at him, and this time jongdae punches his shoulder, still with no heat, until they’re both laughing. “but no, it’s not the business that’s keeping me awake at night.”

“oh?” jongdae raises an eyebrow, because there’s a big difference between having trouble sleeping and being kept awake. maybe minseok’s got someone who keeps him awake and he hasn’t told jongdae -- it would be the first time, but it could happen. they’ve always told each other everything, despite minseok’s tendency to keeping his feelings to himself, but jongdae guesses there’s no law that says they /have/ to, and it wouldn’t bother him if minseok hadn’t told him about something so he doesn’t know why he’s suddenly so uncomfortable. it might have something to do with how little he’s slept. 

(it has everything to do with how beautiful minseok looks when he raises his eyebrows at him, clearly trying to read his expression, but jongdae doesn’t know that, not yet.)

“it’s not like that, you idiot,” minseok says when he finally cracks the code in jongdae’s raised eyebrow. he sounds frustrated, and jongdae doesn’t get it, but he’s too busy being relieved about minseok not having a secret lover to think about that. it’s just because it would’ve sucked if he hadn’t told him about it, that’s all. no other reason. 

minseok opens his mouth to say something else, and jongdae interrupts him with a yawn so loud it makes minseok burst into laughter.

“like you’re not tired,” jongdae whines, and minseok can’t answer because he’s having trouble catching his breath after laughing that hard.

“i’m sorry,” he manages to say. “you just -- ah, you look so cute when you do that.”

at this, jongdae definitely feel his cheeks turning an interesting shade of pink. he likes attention too much for his own good sometimes, even if it’s coming from his best friend who he has absolutely no romantic interest in.

“so are you going to tell me what’s troubling you or not?” jongdae says, stifling another yawn. he has no clue how he’s going to get through his classes today, but coming in early was definitely worth it. not only did he bake all the muffins he had planned on, but he’s also getting some private time with minseok, and given how busy they both have been lately, this is a rare thing. or maybe not so rare, but the fact is, jongdae would spend all of his time having these little chats with minseok where no one can bother them if he could, so any time they spend together feels like not quite enough.

“i think i have feelings,” minseok says, leaning on his elbows on the bar that separates them, and jongdae’s heart nearly comes to a full stop.

“all human beings have feelings, hyung,” he stutters out, praying he didn’t just sound as terrified as he feels. this is worse than a secret lover -- it’s a secret crush.

“jongdae,” minseok rolls his eyes again at him and honestly, when did he start doing that so much? “i mean romantic feelings.”

“you mean you may have a crush?” jongdae offers hesitantly, trying to gather strengths to get through this conversation. he’s fine with this. he’s shared minseok before. minseok’s shared him. it’ll be fine. he has no clue why his heart is trying to race its way out of his chest.

“i mean i may be in love with someone,” minseok states rather plainly, in jongdae’s opinion, considering he’s just said the most terrible thing out loud. he’s staring right at jongdae, which makes it very hard for him to look away or hide under the stool he’s sitting on.

“jesus, hyung, that’s a little intense, i didn’t even know you were seeing someone,” he says and honestly, he’d pat himself on the back because he’s being so strong about all of this considering his heart seems to have gone insane and decided to start breaking just because a friend likes someone. so what if it’s his best friend, and he doesn’t like someone, but /love/ someone? it doesn’t concern jongdae. his heart needs to chill.

“ah, see, there’s the thing,” minseok points out, and the way the corners of his lips are starting to curve up like he might smile at this chaos is making jongdae miserable. “i wasn’t aware i was seeing someone either, until that one night we went to the movies last week, and i was trying to fall asleep afterwards and i just -- i couldn’t, because i couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

jongdae would rather die than process the fact that minseok had been thinking of someone else while he was out with him, thank you very much. 

“have you really been having trouble sleeping for a whole week because of some person?” jongdae says as dismissively as he can. “hyung, when you like someone, you should just go and tell them instead of suffering through it by yourself, we talked about it in like, our first summer together.”

“we’ve had quite a few summers together since, haven’t we,” minseok says wistfully, and jongdae doesn’t know what the fuck is going on but he’s decided he’s going to skip his classes and just sleep through today. that might make all the confusing feelings go away. 

“hyung,” he whines again, a little too loud for how early it is, but minseok doesn’t seem to mind it. he reaches over the table to grab his hand, and jongdae looks up in surprise. so he knows he’s breaking his heart. everything jongdae’s been trying to keep from himself, he’s forgotten to try and keep it from minseok, so minseok /knows/ and now he’s going to comfort him about it. brilliant.

“you’re so dense i should flick you on the forehead.” minseok’s voice is serious and low, and he’s staring at jongdae a little too intensely to be threatening him in such a lame way. “do you really think i have enough time to go fall in love with someone else, when i have been so busy falling in love with you, you idiot?”

it makes so much sense.

everything in jongdae’s life has always made sense, and he’s only now realizing that’s because he’s always had minseok by his side. possibly, he’d realized ages ago, but it had been too scary to face. now, it feels exciting and still just as terrifying.

“it’d be nice if you actually said something,” minseok says with a short laugh, and there’s the tiniest hint of worry in his eyes, which is enough to finally set jongdae into motion.

a part of him had always thought it’d be weird, kissing minseok, because they’ve been best friends for so long it might feel like kissing a sibling. jongdae pulls him in with a hand on the back of his neck, and minseok tastes intensely of coffee and cinnamon, as he expected. he tastes of late afternoons in the park figuring out how to come out to each other at seventeen, of even later nights in jongdae’s room, looking up all the possible degrees and coming up with ways to tell minseok’s parents he didn’t really want to go to college. minseok shifts his head a little, parting jongdae’s lips with his tongue, and it feels like coming back to his dorm after his first final and finding minseok making him his favorite food.

jongdae’s hand goes from minseok’s neck to his cheek, cupping it as he pulls away only to lean back in and press another peck to his mouth.

“you’re still not getting free coffee,” minseok grins, staring at jongdae’s lips like he can’t wait to kiss him again.

“it’s alright, i’ll get my boyfriend to pay for it,” jongdae laughs, and he can see minseok trying to make a face like he minds him being cheesy, but he kisses him before he can roll his eyes yet again at him. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is [me](http://twitter.com/ofstellardust)


End file.
